So Happy It Hurts

[A] raw, funny and untidily generous novel… Ottila belongs to the great sisterhood of the Female Fuck-Up. Not the eroticised trainwrecks male writers love to invent, but the real-deal ones like Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag… As much as you’re rooting for Ottila to get her man, that’s not the point; the point is whether she can gain the moral wisdom to live a better kind of life. She’s an Emma steeped in ethanol. – Sarah Ditum * Guardian *
This lovely, quirky novel will appeal to fans of Miranda July and Sheila Heti. – Sarra Manning * Red *
I loved the novel’s strong sense of place and the picture it paints of a sparky, inner-city singleton trying to stay on the straight and narrow. Funny, bleak and heart-warming, sometimes all at the same time. – Wendy Holden * Daily Mail *
Balances irony and earnestness perfectly, offering both a heartbreakingly sincere quest for happiness and an acerbic intolerance of hollow quick-fixes… Anneliese Mackintosh’s latest work is positively radiant. * The Skinny *
Impressive and challenging… This debut novel is every bit as assured, honest and innovative as its predecessor… So Happy It Hurts is something of a high-wire act, laugh-out-loud funny at times but also so emotionally honest that it sometimes feels like a punch to the guts… As sharp a novel about 21st-century living as you’ll find anywhere. * Big Issue *
A cleverly constructed story, full of trauma, playfulness and wisdom. When portraying fallible lives, Mackintosh’s writing never flinches. * Jason Donald *
Searing… Mackintosh manages to write a book that no one else could pull off with all the same weird panache, peeling back the surface of her main character to expose all the blood and guts and mess beneath. * Diva *

Anneliese Mackintosh’s debut short story collection, Any Other Mouth, was published by Freight Books in 2014 and won the Green Carnation Prize. It was also shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize, Saltire Society’s First Book Award and the Saboteur Award, and was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Anneliese’s short fiction has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland, and published in magazines and anthologies including the Scotsman, Edinburgh Review, and the Best British Short Stories 2013.

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